. >> i don't want to have that conversation in the context of the three-month debt ceiling deals. if we are going talk entitlements, is there room to push on the entitlements and suggest a larger social safety net, things like providing opportunities for poor children beginning to close the wealth gap is a priority. >> raise the health care law. i think it's very important to remember that law isn't fully operational, yet. there is -- yes, exactly. there's an enormous amount of work to do. there's a lot of resistance in the states. that's going to be a struggle. >> one piece of that is in 1997 we did a balanced budget deal. one thing that happened when that period of republicans and democrats came together was step back and as part of consolidating the budget, they shift resources. that was the deal. it was a deficit reduction deal. one thing it created was a children's health program. it's functioning today. it isn't the case of periods of deficit consolidation. it's not just cutting and grinding these things out. how to run a smarter government and run things into resources we n